Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 21Jan 29, 2009 1:40 pm Well were kind of doing both.
Top/street level will have a bondek suspended garage floor, the living timber. The bottom downside level will have a slab. Builders have gone thru the pro's and cons of both, all have said the suspended floor with strip footing will be far less $. Agree the possibility of noise etc but you gotta compromise somewhere. Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 22Jan 29, 2009 2:01 pm I'd prefer to have heating vents in the ceilings anyways. Having them in the floors means that you are restricted when moving around or buying new furniture as you do not want to cover them.
Besides, a 700mm fall only means 350 cut and 350 fill (hardly noticable) Em Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 23Jan 29, 2009 2:12 pm We are building slabs but i would of loved to have the opportunity to do stumps. Our builder didn't do it...
one thing about stumps is that to get 5 star rating you will have to spend a bit more $$. Also, slabs are cheaper to build than stumps in general. there's been a lot of comments here regarding slabs and stumps so i won't go into the details but here's a scenario that happened to my friend which i hope never happens to me... nice custom home built on slab...beautiful tiles put on ..then 2 months after hand over... a pipe leaks ....so they have to get a jack hammer INSIDE the house and ruin the tiles dig down....leaving a nice cloud of dust everywhere then struggle to find the exact tile to replace it afterwards... had the house been on stumps it would of been a $75 call out from the plumber to get under the house and fix the leak. nuff said! ---->Some say that a recession is when your neighbour loses his/her job while a depression is when you lose yours!<----- Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 24Jan 29, 2009 9:46 pm Smeagol,
if your friends builder was any good they should have applied mains pressure to the pipes way before the house was lined and tiled so leaks can be seen. If the leak was in the floor it may not have helped but you never know. X, as for bondek its fine - a good product. Have a look at pre-stressed concrete beams as well. These are reinforced concrete beams that sit on your piers and and brickwork. Very thick concrete sheets are laid between the beams and they lay rio over the top and shoot the concrete straight onto it. Excellent system. As for the debate on timber v concrete......think of it this way, how many large commercial or industrial buildings are built out of timber......concrete and steel guys, have a look around you when you are next in a Westfield...wonder why...its stronger, more durable and effectively maintenance free !!!! JB Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 25Jul 24, 2009 10:40 am Hi all, Thought I'd ressurect this topic abit.. I remember reading on another thread on this site re: slabs v. stumps debate (i think posted by ecoclassic -- don't quote me, could be wrong), that for the following reasons: - Bearers and joists are comparatively more expensive than concrete - Takes longer time to build on stumps - other items require to be incorporated into build to attain 5 star rating when building on completely flat ground, building on a slab is far cheaper than on stumps. However, I presume that as land slopes more and more there reaches a point where building on stumps becomes more cost effective because it bascially offsets a lot of the excavation/site works required to build on the slab. So if we had a graph showing cost of building on stumps vs. slab, where cost is the y-axis and land slope is the x axis (lets just simplistically leave it at the single variable of land slope at the moment) and both graphs are linear with stumps starting out more expensive, then as land slope increases, at some point the cost of building on a slab and on stumps should meet and cross over whereby stumps become more cost effective? My question is, does anyone know at what point stumps become more cost effective? If on perfectly flat land, what is the cost differential between slab and stumps? Is there somewhere I can get some stats on this? I am interested because my block slopes about 2m over depth of block (~36m), with slope of around 1.2m along length of desired house (~20+m). Would prefer stumps for various personal reasons, but want to be well informed. Sorry about the geeky nature of the post, any info would help and be much appreciated. Cheers all! Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 26Apr 16, 2010 3:53 pm That's a really good point (sloping ground) - having to get the site perfectly level for the slab can be a large cost If you have a sloping block, i'd definitely get stumps instead of a slab, also for the safety of being 'above' the waterline. No doubt about it, for renovating, adding services etc. stumps wins hands down. Particle board on the joists between the flooring means no squeaks, you're talking about 30-80 year old houses with no buffer (floorboards on joists). For me - all the extra space, inspection points, and ease of service additions means i'd much prefer stumps. Yep it will cost a bit more. Unless you're in a new development area and everything is pre-specified and the land is dead flat, go for stumps. Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 27Jan 11, 2013 2:58 pm Our house that we bought in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne was built in 1955, the second extension in the 1970's. They got the timber stumps replaced with concrete ones in the 1970's. I prefer it. Easier to do alterations down the line, I also love having a raised porch above ground. The block is slight;y sloping towards the rear. They are all hardwood joists and bearers, the front ones being over 60 years old and they are fine condition. Who knows what the concrete stumps these days will look like in 60 years. It's noisier than a concrete slab, but yes you can insulate. We have tassy oak boards, and I wouldnt recommend any other type of flooring. It's a shame houses are built so cheaply these days, to meet the price point and the majority of them come with tiles. Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 28Dec 21, 2013 1:19 pm I'm resurrecting this thread as I have the same/similar question. We've had our first set of drawings back from Sekisui. Our land slopes down from the front to the rear and the garage was going to be 5 steps above the entry to the house and there was going to be a further step from the front of the house to the rear of the house. Since our house is a KDR and we have views to the rear we wanted to at least keep the rear of the house at the same FFL (finished floor level) but rather it has dropped down. The reasoning is apparently if we want a complying development we're at our max cut/fill point. Anyway we've asked them to come back with a single level (as the original plan!) using bearers and joists. I have no idea how much that will cost and suspect we won't find out to Mid Jan now. With the cost of the Drop Edge Beams (DEB) surely this will be comparable in costs? And this way we figure we'd have a better view in the rear as it's higher off the ground level. Has anyone else had this type of experience where it actually does work out comparable in price with a project home builder? Re: 29Dec 27, 2013 9:36 am Mel&Em I'd prefer to have heating vents in the ceilings anyways. Having them in the floors means that you are restricted when moving around or buying new furniture as you do not want to cover them. Besides, a 700mm fall only means 350 cut and 350 fill (hardly noticable) Em My in laws built a new house and put them on the floor... it makes more sense to have heating coming up from the bottom... if in the ceiling it has to heat the space that is above the area you feel before it heats up the air at a persons height. Timber stumps all the way. insulate the timber floor underneath.... and the noise goes away. Re: Concrete Slab vs Timber sub floor? 30Dec 29, 2013 9:15 pm Just a comment re the fall of your block. You mention there is a fall of 600mm over the block. However how much fall is there over the actual building envelope. Given you are going two storey chances are there may be less fall over the slab area. If this means there ends up with only 300mm then a slab is a no brainer and should even be the cheaper option. Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1. optional, you can but normally just use the earth from the main switch board 2. should be enough but the distance determines voltage drop - sparky should work it… 1 28863 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15976 The concreter will take and reuse. In my case I bought structural LVLs and scraped them back and used them as joists. 1 5192 |